800k pending pleas: SC calls for mechanism

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said periodic collection of data from high courts would not by itself address the problem of more than 800,000 civil execution petitions pending before district courts across India.

Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran was examining compliance reports filed by various high courts pursuant to its earlier directions aimed at ensuring expeditious disposal of execution proceedings.

The proceedings arose from the court’s March 6, 2025 judgment, which dealt with a property dispute unresolved for four decades.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing as amicus curiae, placed before the court a compilation of responses which cited the reasons contributing to delays.

The scale of the backlog prompted Justice Pardiwala to seek assistance on devising a mechanism to beyond monitoring the number of pending matters.

He referred to rule 12 of the Commercial Courts Rules, which provides for the establishment of such a cell, and suggested that a similar mechanism could track execution proceedings .

The court was informed that only one high court had so far established such a cell. “Why are other high courts not considering it!?” the bench asked.